The Clemson football team improved to 10-0 on the season with a win over NC State. Here are some studs and duds from the victory over the Wolfpack.
The Clemson football team dismantled the NC State Wolfpack Saturday night, coming away with a 55-10 victory.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 10-0 on the season and clinched the ACC Atlantic Division. Clemson football also improved its overall program winning streak to 25 games.
Here are some studs and duds from the victory over NC State.
Studs
‘Go get those orange pants on’
One of the most electrifying moments in this matchup happened before the game even started. Clemson couldn’t clinch the ACC Atlantic this week without a Wake Forest loss. So, the Tigers began warming up in white pants.
For those of you that aren’t aware, Dabo Swinney has a tradition where Clemson football only wears the orange pants for championship games (ie clinching the division, the state championship, ACC Championship, bowl/playoff games).
With the news that Wake Forest had lost to Virginia Tech, Swinney told his team in the pregame to ‘go get those orange pants on…we’re four quarters away from Charlotte.’
The team took those words to heart and played as if the division championship was on the line.
Trevor Lawrence
How about Trevor Lawrence’s performance Saturday evening? We’ve spent so many weeks talking about ‘what’s wrong with Trevor,’ but we don’t ever give him the credit he deserves.
Lawrence set a school record as he threw three touchdowns for a fifth-straight game. He completed 20-of-27 passes for 276 yards and three touchdowns, while also rushing for 59 yards and a touchdown.
More Studs
Justin Foster, Tyler Davis on the DL
We don’t give enough credit to some of those defensive linemen up-front. If you go back and watch the film, you’ll see two defensive linemen that really stand out: Justin Foster and Tyler Davis.
We get so caught up in talking about guys like Logan Rudolph, Xavier Thomas and KJ Henry, Foster is one of those unsung heroes. He was nearly unblockable Saturday night and did a great job setting the edge and getting into the backfield.
Playing defensive tackle, Tyler Davis doesn’t see his all over the stat sheet. Even so, he was in the backfield, created pressure and even came away with a fumble recovery Saturday night. The true-freshman has been nothing short of amazing this season and he absolutely deserves first-team All-ACC honors.
This game was just more proof of that fact.
Travis Etienne just being Travis Etienne
When most Clemson football fans think about Travis Etienne’s performance in this one, it’s nothing all that special.
Why? Because every single time Etienne steps on the field, especially as of late, he just seems to fill up the stat sheet.
Even though Etienne didn’t reel off a long run (his longest of the night was 26), he still rushed for 112 yards on 14 carries (8.0 YPC) and scored two rushing touchdowns. In addition, he had three catches and a receiving touchdown on the night. That’s just Travis Etienne being Travis Etienne.
Chad Smith
Chad Smith was all over the field Saturday night. We talk a lot about the performance of Isaiah Simmons at linebacker- and rightfully so- but it was Chad Smith who led the Tigers in tackles Saturday night (7). He had a tackle for loss and recovered a fumble.
On that fumble recovery, he came up about three yards shy of scoring a touchdown.
Smith had himself a night and was instrumental in the Clemson defense continuing its dominance.
John Simpson’s touchdown
Perhaps the best moment of the night came in the second quarter when Clemson OL John Simpson scored a 1-yard touchdown.
With 4:30 left in the second quarter, Simpson lined up in the ‘fridge package’ behind freshman DL Tyler Davis and punched it into the end zone. Seeing his joy and excitement was a perfect picture of what the Clemson football program is all about.
Duds
Lackadaisical second half
Maybe lackadaisical is too strong of a word? In the second half, you can tell that the coaching staff called off the dogs- despite what many media members want to say- and the players were less than enthused.
The game had been decided since the midway point of the first quarter and it seems that many of the Clemson football players didn’t necessarily lose focus, but perhaps just didn’t care.
The Tiger starting defense gave up a touchdown in the third quarter after letting NC State drive down the field and they just didn’t seem focused. The second-string offense only scored one touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Overall, Clemson football scored just 13 points in the second half.
A couple of drops
The two drops were absolutely uncharacteristic of Tee Higgins Saturday night. Higgins is a dominant wide receiver and he just let the ball slip between his fingers.
At times that happens without much rhyme or reason. The incompletion in the end zone, we have to say, may be the prettiest incompletion we’ve ever seen.
Lawrence put the ball right on the money and that would’ve been a highlight play had it been reeled in. Even so, Higgins will continue to improve and there’s no concern moving forward when it comes to the talented wide receiver.
The Tigers can’t win with the media
The Clemson football team was ranked No. 5 in the initial CFB Playoff rankings last week. The Tigers ‘weren’t dominant enough’ according to the committee and many media members.
So, what did Clemson do? The Tigers went out and beat NC State by 45 points. Well, now they’re running up the score.
Clemson can’t win with the media no matter what it does. There’s no magic amount of winning margin and many media members are going to continue to harp on whatever they can find. Either you’re too dominant, or not dominant enough.
The same logic doesn’t apply to Ohio State, however, who kicked an onside kick up three touchdowns against Maryland and then proceeded to hang 73 on the Terps.